So I'm reading "Xmas or Bust: The Untold Story of 'National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation'" by Rob LeDonne on RollingStone.com (published on December 22, 2014), and Jeremiah Chechik, the director of that movie, says this:

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I always wanted the animated opening you see in the film, but Warners balked at the cost of doing an animated title. So rather than get into a fight, I designed another title sequence with a Christmas song sung by a Jamaican who sounded like he had no teeth and you can barely understand the words. Then the replacement title sequence looked like an old French art film, with white titles on black. When I proposed this to Warner they said, "We think the animated titles are great." For the theme song, Prince was a Warner artist and he produced it. He's the one who brought in Darlene Love.

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First of all, Mavis Staples sang the theme tune of that movie, Darlene Love isn't featured on the soundtrack: http://www.imdb.com/title...t_ql_trv_7

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But that actually makes Prince's involvement likelier, considering she was signed to Paisley Park Records at the time (1989).

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Now, he didn't write the song, Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann did.

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But did he produce it, and perhaps play some/all of the instruments? I've listened to it, and I'd say it isn't impossible, but it does seem unlikely.

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The problem is this song was never released anywhere AFAIK (that "limited edition" was a bootleg), so I don't think there are any official credits WRT producer etc.

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Does anyone have more info?

BartVanHemelen said:

So I'm reading "Xmas or Bust: The Untold Story of 'National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation'" by Rob LeDonne on RollingStone.com (published on December 22, 2014), and Jeremiah Chechik, the director of that movie, says this:

.

I always wanted the animated opening you see in the film, but Warners balked at the cost of doing an animated title. So rather than get into a fight, I designed another title sequence with a Christmas song sung by a Jamaican who sounded like he had no teeth and you can barely understand the words. Then the replacement title sequence looked like an old French art film, with white titles on black. When I proposed this to Warner they said, "We think the animated titles are great." For the theme song, Prince was a Warner artist and he produced it. He's the one who brought in Darlene Love.

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First of all, Mavis Staples sang the theme tune of that movie, Darlene Love isn't featured on the soundtrack: http://www.imdb.com/title...t_ql_trv_7

.

But that actually makes Prince's involvement likelier, considering she was signed to Paisley Park Records at the time (1989).

.

Now, he didn't write the song, Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann did.

.

But did he produce it, and perhaps play some/all of the instruments? I've listened to it, and I'd say it isn't impossible, but it does seem unlikely.

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The problem is this song was never released anywhere AFAIK (that "limited edition" was a bootleg), so I don't think there are any official credits WRT producer etc.

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Does anyone have more info?

The song was released on a Christmas song compilation CD my mom has. I don't remember what the release was but this is the perfect week for me to dig through her stack and find it. IIRC, this was an early 2000's release. If I remember, I'll look around Thursday and see if I can find it.

BartVanHemelen said:

The problem is this song was never released anywhere AFAIK (that "limited edition" was a bootleg), so I don't think there are any official credits WRT producer etc.

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Damn, should have checked Discogs: http://www.discogs.com/Ma...se/2726336 It's not Prince.

djThunderfunk said:

The song was released on a Christmas song compilation CD my mom has. I don't remember what the release was but this is the perfect week for me to dig through her stack and find it. IIRC, this was an early 2000's release. If I remember, I'll look around Thursday and see if I can find it.

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This one, perchance?

BartVanHemelen said:

djThunderfunk said:

The song was released on a Christmas song compilation CD my mom has. I don't remember what the release was but this is the perfect week for me to dig through her stack and find it. IIRC, this was an early 2000's release. If I remember, I'll look around Thursday and see if I can find it.

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This one, perchance?

Maybe, I'm pretty sure that's the label it's on but I'm thinking hers is a double CD and there's a couple titles I think that were on it that are not on this one. They probably combined a couple of their sets into a double. If I'm not mistaken that label has a tendency to reissue compilations in various configurations.

BartVanHemelen said:

BartVanHemelen said:

The problem is this song was never released anywhere AFAIK (that "limited edition" was a bootleg), so I don't think there are any official credits WRT producer etc.

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Damn, should have checked Discogs: http://www.discogs.com/Ma...se/2726336 It's not Prince.

So, why did the director claim the Prince involvement? Was Prince just present for the recording? Or possibly automatic producer credits for any Paisley Park artist?

Promo release

It was officially released on this 12"

I saw that interview as well and was very puzzled.

This is fascinating. I had no idea Bart could still make a discography mistake.

Noodled24 said:

So, why did the director claim the Prince involvement? Was Prince just present for the recording? Or possibly automatic producer credits for any Paisley Park artist?

A lot of scenarios could be at play here, one of which was the executives lied to him, or promised Prince production just to get their way.

It's possible Prince stuck his nose in, made a comment and someone went home that day blowing up what happened into more than it was.

It's also possible someone offered it to Prince, and he didn't show up.

Sounds like the director just remembers it incorrectly. There is nothing Prince-like about the production. I'm gonna guess the connection to the song stops at Mavis Staples being signed to Prince's label.

I read that too, it said he produced it. I just thought...WOW pretty cool.

[Edited 12/23/14 20:38pm]

Listen perhaps what the actual director of the film is saying is accurate seeing as how he would know exactly wh produced the song of the movie he directed. I don't know why people assume any 'Prince' produced song would sound like Prince. Does 'You got the right one baby' sound like Prince? No it doesn't. From my understanding Prince was involved in a lot of music that he never took credit for or payment for that people would be surprised at. In this particular situation, it doesn't profit the director to make up a story like this.

Polo1026 said:

Listen perhaps what the actual director of the film is saying is accurate seeing as how he would know exactly wh produced the song of the movie he directed. I don't know why people assume any 'Prince' produced song would sound like Prince. Does 'You got the right one baby' sound like Prince? No it doesn't. From my understanding Prince was involved in a lot of music that he never took credit for or payment for that people would be surprised at. In this particular situation, it doesn't profit the director to make up a story like this.

...you like to jab at people's opinions. Someones recollection of past events is blurred sometimes. Sort of like people thinking Prince produced a diet pepsi jingle...he didn't. http://www.princevault.co...hp/Uh-Huh!

I'm speculating that Prince didn't produce it. Educated guess...isn't that what you do in a discussion forum?

A Prince Production doesn't mean it should sound like Prince. But you can tell when he has contributed to a track. An example...production was split on Pandimonium, but you can tell what he did and didn't produce.

Polo1026 said:

Listen perhaps what the actual director of the film is saying is accurate seeing as how he would know exactly wh produced the song of the movie he directed. I don't know why people assume any 'Prince' produced song would sound like Prince. Does 'You got the right one baby' sound like Prince? No it doesn't.

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Yes it does. Unless you're talking about the Ray Charles song WHICH HE DID NOT PRODUCE.

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From my understanding Prince was involved in a lot of music that he never took credit for or payment for that people would be surprised at. In this particular situation, it doesn't profit the director to make up a story like this.

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Oh for fuck's sake, we KNOW who produced it. Same guys who did the non-Prince tracks on Mavis Staples's Time Waits For No One.

Noodled24 said:

BartVanHemelen said:

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Damn, should have checked Discogs: http://www.discogs.com/Ma...se/2726336 It's not Prince.

So, why did the director claim the Prince involvement? Was Prince just present for the recording? Or possibly automatic producer credits for any Paisley Park artist?

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You do realise you're talking about someone who can't tell Darlene Love and Mavis Staples apart, right?

What I find insane is that this thread reveals a Paisley Park promo single and za b-side I've never ever heard of

It was a common misconception at the time to believe that everything out of Paisley Park was produced by Prince. This was before Per Nilsen/Uptown and even before the Nude Tour program book, I remember reading that Prince was behind the whole Taja Sevelle or Dale albums, and if u look on Allmusic it still says he produced Tony LeMans (fucking amateurs those Allmusic reviwers!), so I take it the guy was mistaken at the time and not being a hardcore fan, never double-checked his facts.

Is the mix-up here possibly down to the term 'producing' having different meanings in the film and music industry? In the film industry it's a more organisational role, and it seems reasonable to assume from this that Prince had a hand in getting Mavis Staples the job of performing the song, a production role in a film-maker's eyes.

databank said:

What I find insane is that this thread reveals a Paisley Park promo single and za b-side I've never ever heard of

It was a common misconception at the time to believe that everything out of Paisley Park was produced by Prince. This was before Per Nilsen/Uptown and even before the Nude Tour program book, I remember reading that Prince was behind the whole Taja Sevelle or Dale albums, and if u look on Allmusic it still says he produced Tony LeMans (fucking amateurs those Allmusic reviwers!), so I take it the guy was mistaken at the time and not being a hardcore fan, never double-checked his facts.

I wish Prince would have co-produced the Tony album along with David Gamson from Scritti Politti who produced it.

One of my favorite albums ever is Roger Troutman's "Bridging The Gap", which Roger and David co-produced a lot of, together. The combination of Roger's vocals, guitar and funk stylings with David's genius synth textures is fucking fantastic.

xenophobia2002 said:

Promo release

Mavis Staples

7”

USA

Promo

PRO-S-3878

Christmas Vacation (3:25) / Christmas Vacation (3:25)

It was officially released on this 12"

Mavis Staples

12”

USA

0-21435

Time Waits For No One (lp version 6:12) / Christmas Vacation (3:25) / Jaguar (radio edit 4:01)

http://www.45cat.com/record/pros3878

Polo1026 said:

Listen perhaps what the actual director of the film is saying is accurate seeing as how he would know exactly wh produced the song of the movie he directed. I don't know why people assume any 'Prince' produced song would sound like Prince. Does 'You got the right one baby' sound like Prince? No it doesn't. From my understanding Prince was involved in a lot of music that he never took credit for or payment for that people would be surprised at. In this particular situation, it doesn't profit the director to make up a story like this.

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Hallelujah.

databank said:

What I find insane is that this thread reveals a Paisley Park promo single and za b-side I've never ever heard of

I knew this

Bluu said:

Polo1026 said:

Listen perhaps what the actual director of the film is saying is accurate seeing as how he would know exactly wh produced the song of the movie he directed. I don't know why people assume any 'Prince' produced song would sound like Prince. Does 'You got the right one baby' sound like Prince? No it doesn't. From my understanding Prince was involved in a lot of music that he never took credit for or payment for that people would be surprised at. In this particular situation, it doesn't profit the director to make up a story like this.

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Hallelujah.

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Yes, applaud the post by the guy who apparently doesn't know that Prince WAS NOT INVOLVED IN THAT PEPSI COMMERCIAL.

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Hey, that Kim Basinger album that also doesn't sound like Prince? Guess what? NO PRINCE INVOLVEMENT.

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Gotta love the dire state of the online Prince community: decades old misinformation continues to be used as "evidence" for uninformed opinions -- and then someone supports this.